The title of this blog comes from a Gaelic expression -"putting on the poor mouth"-which means to exaggerate the direness of one's situation in order to gain time or favour from creditors.

05 May 2007

The Hungarian tribes of Africa...

In 1935, Hungarian Laszlo Almasy encountered a tribe in living along Nile in Egypt and Sudan who called themselves Magyarab and claimed Hungarian ancestry.

According to the Magyarabs - a word that means the tribe of Magyars in Nubian - a unit of Hungarians in the Ottoman army was fighting in southern Egypt, in the 16th Century. Some or all of the unit remained and intermarried with local women. The Magyarabs now have a Middle Eastern appearance and no longer speak the Hungarian but they still take great pride in their ancestry. Their leader, Ibrahim el-Magyar is highly respected amongst the Madjarabs even today.

A few days ago the Africa Research Institute (ARI) in Geneva announced that it had found an what is possibly an offshoot of the Magyarabs – this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A team led by anthropologist Gabor Varga discovered the Madjari in tiny village called Halitu in the north-western region of the country. The tribe had lived in a completely secluded area and rarely moved out of its well protected village according to Dr. Varga.

EDIT: Sadly the news about the Congo Magyarabs was subsequently shown to be a hoax. I still find the idea of a Hungarian descendant tribe in Egypt and Sudan quite fascinating though.

Until mid week I had never heard of the Magyarabs (or Madjarabs). I can thank Redwine for drawing my attention to their existence. Now to see if a link can be demonstrated between the residents of Liqian and the Roman Empire.

17 comments:

With the advent of complex DNA testing, they've found an African tribe that practices Judaism and has the genetic makeup to prove that they are indeed descended from Jews. Interesting stuff.

Papi just found out this week that his family members he always assumed immigrated to Mexico from Italy in the early 1900's, was actually SWEDISH! I told Papi that he is no longer my Sexi Mexi. He's now my Swedish Meatball. I then demanded a houseful of new furnishings from IKEA, and a blue Volvo sedan.

How about that, EWBL... members of A tribe who are also members of THE tribe. I had read of that before. I wonder when stories like that one and the one jams tells here will lead us to realize just how interrelated we all are as a species.

I'd love to hear some of that Madjari ritual music. Musical "cross-pollination" often results in a very satisfying musical hybrid; think of Afro-Cuban music for example.

Sorry Ziyad, original Hungarians are not blue eyed. I would say you got Slavic origin perhaps. Among the Hungarians stolen by the Ottomans, were Croats and Slovenes in smaller numbers as well. The article should say the Hungarians fighting for the Ottomans were pressed, as it was the custom of the Ottoman empire to capture males from subjugated areas and press them into military service. This way it sounds like they volunteered, which was never the case. This story is well known in Hungary by the way, from long time back. We knew of the Nile Magyars, but the Congo ones are news for sure. Traditional Hungarian music uses Asian scale and the melodies are reminiscent of Central Asia. Would be nice to hear the one from the Congo.

So good topic really i like any post talking about Ancient Egypt but i want to say thing to u Ancient Egypt not that only ... you can see in Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian Gods and more , you shall search in Google and Wikipedia about that .... thanks a gain ,,,

About Me

Born Bonaparte O'Coonassa in Corkadoragha where the the torrential rains are more torrential, the squalor more squalid, the hopelessness more utterly hopeless than they are anywhere else. Actually I'm Shaun Downey and I live in Romford which is probably worse (Romford, that is, not my name!)